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Budget card for sim racing

Lakeland

Lakeland

Lakeland

Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2005
Posts
5,711
Budget circa 100 to 150 ideally. My monitor is the BenQ BL3200PT 32" 2560x1440.

I have an old gtx460 that can just about run dirt rally at 1080 on high but 2k is a no-no at the moment. My aim I'd to run 2k smoothly at high or ultra quality.

Is my budget sufficient? I also need the card to be compatible with CAD software like autodesk inventor/solidworks but I don't want a card specifically for this as I don't really render things at home. It also needs to be able to support a second 24" 1080 monitor when not gaming (office use).
 
to run that res smoothly your looking at either a GTX 970 or a R9 390. both are over your price point. Personally if your using Solidworks then stick with Nvidia (trust me on this i use solidworks at work) so i would suggest using a Nvidia GTX 970. However second hand your looking about £180ish I have yet to see them drop as low as £150.

if you want a new card in budget then a GTX 960 will be OK however it will not run your games at 2k on high settings. it will manage medium with the off setting on High but the difference between a 960 and a 970 is quite a jump

Best card in Budget.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/kfa2...i-express-graphics-card-retail-gx-085-kf.html

it also depends on the sim TBH what sim you playing ?
 
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Thanks for the quick response, I play dirt rally and assetto corsa at the moment. I'm guessing a decent 970 is about 280 ish? If the 970 is a big jump I may just keep an eye on mm or see what the piggy bank is looking like at the end of January :p
 
Ok assetto corsa on a 970 at 1440p with everythibg maxed out will turn you about 60-65 fps (im a big fan of this game and ran it on my old 970. Tbh any of the ones ocuk sell are fine and will all clock roughly the same (its a lottery if you get one that clocks good or bad)

If i was you i would seriously hang on until you can get a 970 the difference is 30+% if not more. Stick an add on the wanted section that always works well.

The 960 will struggle at that res assetto is quite gpu hungry.
 
for your budget 380 150£ or slightly higher 380X 189£ , both performance would allow high-ultra at your resolution for your games

if you can strech to 250£ you also have 390 handles pretty much whatever your throw at it at ultra.
 
Sound advice cheers guys. Is there any need to avoid clocked cards i.e. does clocking significantly reduce lifespan? I normally keep hold of gear for a long time so I would consider new if there were benefits?
 
Nah you'll be fine. I've never had a card degrade from overclocking and I've hammered plenty. Most people clock within manufacturers spec for 24/7 running anyhow.
 
OC doesnt reduce lifespan, poor quality components usualy does, beside you can never be sure about electronics, as long as you have warranty, i think you are fine.
i have a 290 vaporx 170mhz over stock, running for about 24/7 for about 8 month without a shutdown, think must have rebooted the pc like 5-7times, so good to have a solid stable PC ha!
 
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No it does not tbh, well does but a component will fail first thats unrelated. I rana gyx 480 for 3 years overclocked as high as it would go without melting itself. I sold it ob and its still going today.

I really think the 970 is your best bet unless you find a bargain 980 some how.

Assetto looks awsome on a 970 i have a dedicated server running 24/7 on donnington if you ever fancy a blast. Search for UKSF run gt2/3 cars but i do change it. You will need the donnington track but its free. A friend of mine is running a 970 that i race with and he is very happy with performance as i was.

I will be on tomorrow eve at some point if you fancy a little burn up.
 
AlamoX said:
OC doesnt reduce lifespan
Click to expand...
it Most certainly does, it may be a case of 12 years instead of 15, but pushing these components harder will most certainly shorten their lifespan.
normally it is still well within the average users upgrade time frame so we almost never notice it.
 
Dirt Rally I am going to assume is optimised for AMD cards. Seeing as how my card came with it free an there are AMD sponsorship billboards all over the tracks in game lol. I play it on everything ultra on my 390x and get something silly like 170FPS. so 390x easily handles it. I dare say a 390 or 380x would too .
 
bru said:
it Most certainly does, it may be a case of 12 years instead of 15, but pushing these components harder will most certainly shorten their lifespan.
normally it is still well within the average users upgrade time frame so we almost never notice it.
Click to expand...

I went pretty extreme on my MSI BBXPII but it lasted a whole 11 months before the power phases died.
 
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